The United States of America is a country built on freedom. Freedom of expression, religion and speech are integral parts of the country’s identity, but it seems like the current political climate is aiming to suppress those enacting their ability to speak freely.

There are many keystone indicators in the lengthy and complex progress of silencing independent voices, some of which are being carried out by the president himself.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly lashed out at many reporters, mainly female, when being asked relatively standard questions to get follow up information regarding current events.

One of the most notable accounts being when Bloomberg White House correspondent Catherine Lucey asked about releasing the Epstein Files, Trump cut her off and shouted “Quiet, piggy.” This repeated behavior of targeting female reporters asking questions, which seems to be a ploy to inflict fear in said reporters, and fear leads to silence.

It’s been a pattern for Trump to shout at reporters who ask certain questions about topics he doesn’t seem to like, and harassing reporters is an indicator of the long process of silencing independent news outlets. Mild harassment allows the mask of free speech to stay up, while factual news outlets are chipped away. But that’s not the only way the media has been suppressed.

Another way news outlets are targeted is by buying them or their parent companies out in order to control what they publish.

Recently, parent companies of media outlets, like Paramount, have been bought out by those with strong ties to Trump. These media outlets have been facing more pressure to be more appealing to the right by installing openly conservative members. CBS News is one such example.

CBS reporters are alleging that a recent “60 Minutes” segment on abuse faced by prisoners in the Terrorism Confinement Center, a prison in El Salvador where many deportees are sent, was pulled for “political” reasons, despite claims from CBS that the segment needed “additional reporting.” Sharyn Alfonsi, the correspondent who reported the segment, claims it was cleared for release five times. However, the segment accidentally aired on the CBS app, and Paramount is working to take down reposts of it online.

In the 2000s, Russia performed a similar operation of buying out parent companies or news outlets. In some cases, fining them, accusing them of tax evasion and even raiding them.

While action towards news outlets hasn’t escalated to the point of raids, harassment and buyouts are frighteningly similar to actions taken by other countries to navigate towards only maintaining press that benefits the government.

As well as targeting independent outlets, social media forums are being bought out and transformed, as social media site X, formerly Twitter, has given many users the impression that it is skewed to the right. Many left leaning users also believe they have seen reduced visibility and tend to be banned more often. Despite claims from the owner of X, Elon Musk, claiming that the platform is meant to be a safe haven for free speech, left leaning users feel underrepresented and muted despite making up a fair amount of the users on the platform.

Individually, these incidents seem like an agitated president, potential monopolies forming and a tech C.E.O. trying to make a profit off a rebranding. But together, they paint a worrying picture of an effort to quietly suppress media conservatives wouldn’t agree with. It’s easy to dismiss actions like these on their own, as there’s always plausible deniability. However, in order to protect the first amendment rights so integral to the United States, looking at the bigger picture is necessary.

In the historical context of similar actions taken by other countries, they seem to share a common motive. In Russia’s case, news outlets were suppressed due to a shift towards autocracy and many other countries did it for the same reason.

So what does it mean for us? Is the United States destined for autocracy as well? The natural enemy to any authoritarian government is its own people and their ability to form their own opinions and express them. As long as there are people willing to speak their minds for change, change will happen. So speak your mind.